Reforming the Police: Let’s Get It Done : Council to take up recommendations on LAPD this week

It’s time for Los Angeles to act.

The drama and excitement have waned, the summer re-reruns of the videotape of the police beating of Rodney King are played out. The Christopher Commission report on what’s wrong with the Los Angeles Police Department has been a public document since July 9; the City Council’s committee hearings on the proposed Christopher Commission reforms ended last week. This week the issue goes to the full City Council for debate and a vote.

The council’s job is to put on the ballot those police reforms whose enactment requires a charter revision--and craft a ballot measure that Los Angeles can be proud to enact.

Now is the time to move. Let’s get this job done.

How likely is this to happen?

Warren Christopher, the chairman of the Independent Commission on the LAPD, says he believes the reforms are moving forward in good fashion, and he cautions against asserting that none of his panel’s proposals could be improved upon or, here and there, even recast.

That tack is much appreciated by the City Council, which takes great and huffy umbrage at any suggestion that it plans to do unto police reform what it did so well unto ethics reform--make it into a hash.

THE WATCHDOGS: But it is also at least noteworthy that, while expressing considerable enthusiasm for the council’s efforts so far, Chairman Christopher also supports the formation of the new watchdog committee that says it will keep its eye on things as the reform measure is taken up by the full council this week.

It’s heartening that so many otherwise busy and no doubt overworked Angelenos are agreeing to serve on this watchdog panel. Members include a range of business and labor people, former public officials and two former LAPD chiefs.

Their commitment suggests the extent to which leaders of this community are committed to a basic and thorough police reform.

Angelenos who take this view are not anti-LAPD; in fact they’re pro-police. They know full well that this Police Department has some of the finest officers and has in place some of the best procedures anywhere. The LAPD has a reputation for being free of widespread corruption. But the Christopher report did identify an alarming pattern of abuse of force and the persistence of racist and sexist conduct and attitudes. These must be expunged as soon as possible to preserve and protect one of city government’s best buys for the tax dollar: the LAPD.

THE NEW CHIEF: In the end the champion of any real reform will not be the City Council, or a blue-ribbon commission, or even a distinguished body of watchdogs. That’s the job of the new police chief, and our advice to the City of Los Angeles is to accelerate the search.

Chief Daryl F. Gates has agreed to leave no later than April 1, so it would be desirable to have named the new chief well before March 31. The chief-designate will need time to assess the size of the reform and devise a strategy to cope with the enormous demands to be placed on him or her. Let’s not dither and dally.